THE MORNING AFTER

Lock the doors, turn on the lights, and pull up the covers! Being buried alive is horrid enough to imagine, and Cristine McMurdo-Wallis chillingly narrates that opening scene with the timbre and cadence of an escalating nightmare as Barbara Jean realizes this is her fate. McMurdo-Wallis's impeccable timing and pacing lift this novel off the written page. "What's all the fussin' up ta Blood Mountain?" a gap-toothed Northern Georgia mountain man asks. Officer Slyvie, in her spiked platinum hair and snakeskin boots, cusses like a sailor as she hunts for the sadistic serial killer. Lisa Jackson sprinkles red herrings and horrific images like confetti; McMurdo-Wallis provides the goose bumps. K.A.T. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 05/ JAN 06]